A lot of nonsense gets repeated on the WC list (that's "Waldorf Critics") as simple fact. Yet those who challenge these erroneous statements are frequently banned on the flimsiest of pretexts. This blog will examine the facts in an unrestricted forum.

May 25, 2006

Responses to: A Peculiar Grant Application

The response has been dismayingly feeble. So, I think I'll start with some quotes from Diana Winter, berating me in her inimitable manner for implying that PLANS might have lied on their grant application.

You made innuendos that you are refusing to explain. You should explain them, or your own tactics are sleazy, while you wax eloquent that other people are doing things that are supposedly "murky." You retract the word with your exaggerated politeness, but offer no explanation. Have you no shame? Perceive no irony? Other people are up to dirty tricks, but these tactics you are using, these are honorable? You planted the suggestion here that PLANS lied in a grant application. This is really not costing you a little sleep?

So, I explained, I substantiated, I quoted directly from the PLANS grant application. I'm sure that no one acquainted with Diana Winter will be surprised that she failed to apologize for her abusive remarks. In fact, her behavior was quite murky. First she disappeared from the AT for a few days. Complete and total silence, after she insisted that I had to substantiate my claim, or commit hari-kiri or the online equivalent. Then she returned, offered the feeble explanation that:

The name of the school is wrong on the grant application? I have no idea the meaning of this, but it looks like an error to me. So conspiracy hounds, if they'd written "Yuba River Charter School" on that form instead of "Yuba City," PJI would have said; "There is no school by that name. The correct name is blah-blah. Funding denied." LOL.

Just in case somebody is having trouble following this somewhat murky discussion, Diana chose the most extremely minor point in the quote from the grant application, that one of the school names is incorrect. The far less minor point is the claim that the school, still unnamed, was compulsory. There is NO compulsory elementary school and there WAS NEVER a compulsory elementary school. But Diana doesn't touch on the real point, just says, "Gosh, a boo-boo, but it isn't important."

I review grant applications for a foundation. I've been reviewing grant applications for over ten years now. If I received a grant application with an obvious error, or with questionable claims, I would call up the grantee and ask some pointed questions about the content of the grant application. I would be irresponsible if I recommended a grant to somebody who was spouting inaccuracies, and way beyond irresponsible if I recommended a grant to someone who included obvious falsehoods in their grant application.

It isn't okay to lie in a grant application. A grant application is a request for money for a particular purpose. Requesting money using false information is fraud. Certainly, it is possible to make a mistake on a grant application. An HONEST applicant who discovers they have made a mistake, contacts the grantor and submits a correction.

So, even if the lawyer did the whole thing all by himself, as Dan Dugan claims (a most unlikely story), at some point Dan received a copy of the grant materials. At that point he could have corrected the various errors. Ms. Snell, whose name is on the grant application could have corrected the various errors. Neither of them bothered.

I don't think, at this point, that holding them responsible for the statements that appear on this grant application is particularly harsh.

The folks they submitted the application to? Either incompetent, stupid, or longing to be suckered. They obviously didn't make the slightest attempt to verify ANY of the information submitted.

Posted by Deborah at May 25, 2006 7:55 PM

Comments

It's not OK to lie to the public and to parents about the true nature of Waldorf education, and that happens routinely. Waldorf schools (and by this, I mean the human beings who represent them!) neglect to tell parents and the public that Anthroposophy informs almost every aspect of Waldorf education, from the colors painted on the classroom walls to the snacks fed to the children to what the teachers teach -- and how and when, not to mention the whole raison de'tre of the schools (to educate children's spirits and souls.) That's a very big lie, ladies and gentlemen.